KATAFALK
is a highly energetic death/black/thrash metal
band hailing from Groningen City, The Netherlands. Their music contains
brutal blastbeats, aggressive riffing, screaming vocals and killer leads.
These components are brought together in very dynamic, well structured
songs, which keep the listeners focused and incite a lot of energy.
According to reviewers, elements of death, thrash, grind and black metal
can be heard, so the band's style can easily be summarized asextreme
metal. KATAFALK is known for the explosive
andintense live shows in which both the aggression
of the music and the enthusiasm of the bandmembers play important roles.
KATAFALK was founded in 1995 by guitarist Chris.
After two demo's ('Through The Storm' ('97) and 'Promo
2001', lots of gigs and line-up changes, the band managed to
become pretty well-known in and outside The Netherlands. Having done
a series of exclusive dates with God Dethroned, the
band was offered a deal by Cold Blood Industries. KATAFALK's
debut album 'Storm Of The Horde' came out early 2003
via CBI / Zomba / Suburban. The album is available
worldwide and received overwhelming response
by both fans and media. Some scores: Rock Hard 8/10,
Legacy 13/15, Aardschok 85/100. Following
the album, extensive gigging was done and many festivals were played.
KATAFALK has an outstanding live reputation, having shared the stage with bands like Aborted, Altar, Ancient Rites, Behemoth, Callenish Circle, Centurian, Dark Funeral, Destruction, Dew-Scented, Desaster, Dimension Zero, Dismember, Entombed, God Dethroned, Grave, Hypnosia, Inhume, Kataklysm, Legion Of The Damned, Leng Tch'e, Lord Belial, Malevolent Creation, Marduk, Master, Misery Index, Mörk Gryning, Naglfar, Necrophagist, Origin, Primordial, Pro-Pain, Sinister, Thanatos, Vader and Vomitory. Festivals played include Noordschok, Stonehenge, Occultfest, Party.San Open Air and even a sold-out Wâldrock (14,000 visitors), among major acts like Anthrax, Annihilator, H.I.M., Lacuna Coil, Sepultura, Stratovarius, Type O Negative and Iron Maiden!
KATAFALK also appeared in two TV commercials. The first, for internetprovider
Chello, featured guitarist Chris
smashing a guitar into a computer along the tones of KATAFALK's
song "Cannonfodder" (broadcasted
on MTV / TMF / Nickelodeon). A second commercial (this time for major online shop bol.com, also broadcasted on Dutch national TV) saw both guitarists Chris and Niels banging their heads in a record store.
As CBI became defunct, KATAFALK recorded
four new songs to show the new potential of the band. Recorded at Soundlodge
studio's with knobmaster Jörg Uken (who later on also did God Dethroned and Dew-Scented) these sound
even better than their full-length effort, showing a natural progression
yet keeping intact all aspects of the KATAFALK sound.
After being shelved for some time, these songs are now available as
the 'Death's Contradiction' mini album. To be continued....
